Jocelyn Downie is a professor in the Faculties of Law and Medicine at Dalhousie University. Downie was a member of the pro bono legal team in Carter v. Canada, a member of the Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group on Physician-Assisted Dying and a member of the Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel on End of Life Decision-Making.

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The good news is that Health Canada has approved Mifegymiso for sale in Canada. Mifegymiso is a combination of drugs that, taken together, cause what’s called a medical abortion. Medical abortion can be preferable to …

On April 14, 2016, Canada moved one step closer to establishing its system for legally permissible assisted dying. The federal government introduced Bill C-14, An Act to Amend the Criminal Code and to Make Amendments …

Ms. S. was a 56-year-old woman with advanced multiple sclerosis. In June 2016, when her suffering became intolerable and her state of decline was advanced as a result of her incurable medical condition, she asked …

When complex and controversial draft legislation is processed rapidly, significant potential implications of the bill – and any amendments made to it – can be missed. Unfortunately, this is precisely what happened with the federal …

Two developments at Health Canada recently came crashing together in an illuminating way: the adoption of Risk Management Plans in the drug approval process and the approval of Mifegymiso, commonly referred to as the abortion …